The Factor Rundown
Eric Bolling fills in tonight.
Unresolved Problems Segment
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New information on foiled Yemeni terrorist
For reaction to the latest information on the thwarted plane bomber, guest host Eric Bolling welcomed General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and former Democratic presidential candidate. General Clark saw a possible future intervention in Yemen: "Maybe we need to put some boots on the ground there." Clark also expressed support for handling the terrorist as a common criminal: "I think we've got adequate capacity in the civilian courts to deal with these people. We've put them away before... it's really to our advantage as a society and as a nation to use the full powers of the rule of law that we believe in as Americans, and show it as an example to the rest of the world." But Bolling was concerned about a possible light sentence for Abdulmutallab: "He could faces a little as 20 years in prison for attempting to kill 300 innocent people above Detroit. That seems like a fairly soft sentence for a guy who really wanted to carry this out."
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Is the Obama administration ignoring warnings?
Abdulmutallab's father reportedly told American authorities that he suspected his son was a threat -- however, he was able to keep his US visa and wasn't put on the no-fly list. Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer thought that the Obama administration's approach was at least partially to blame for the security lapse. "They do not consider the war on terror a real war. They see it as an isolated act of criminality. That's why the policy is flawed." Bolling agreed that Obama's messaging was a bit off: "Earlier today he said it was an 'attempt' at terror. If I'm on a flight with 295 other people and I see a guy on fire, it doesn't seem like an 'attempted' terrorist attack. It seems like the real thing!" Bolling then asked if Obama should replace Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano for her lackluster response to the crisis. Krauthammer thought so: "She's in way over her head. It is absurd having her running this department."
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Republicans criticizing national security measures
Following the Christmas Day terror attempt, the GOP wasted no time attacking Obama, accusing him of being weak on terror. Bolling asked conservative columnist Andrea Tantaros and Fox News Radio host Alan Colmes if this Republican strategy was a smart move. Colmes thought that Republican grandstanding was offensive: "They ought to be ashamed of themselves." Colmes also pointed out that the Bush administration had some culpability: "Those two Gitmo detainees of the four people who planned this plot were released by George W. Bush, sent to Saudi Arabia to do art therapy." Tantaros disagreed, saying that criticism of the president's response was perfectly legit: "Barack Obama came out and called this an 'isolated incident.' That just shows that he does not grasp the severity of the situation... That's like Tiger Woods calling Rachel Uchitel an 'isolated incident.'" Colmes and Tantaros got very heated, barely allowing Bolling to get a word in. "All right, you guys, we got to break it up," Bolling said as the segment ran out of time.
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Questions raised over handling of terror suspects
Currently, Abdulmutallab is in jail, and is expected to face charges in Federal court. But now some are questioning if this is the right approach for a terrorist. Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen and criminal defense attorney Tamara Holder argued about whether he should get a civilian trial. Berntsen wanted to see him treated as an enemy combatant: "We need to recognize that we're actually at war with these guys. This guy didn't do a carjacking. He didn't, you know, hold up a 7-Eleven. He tried to commit mass murder as part of and in support of al Qaeda's war on the United States." Holder insisted that the US justice system was strong enough to handle Abdulmutallab. She saw clear parallels to a past case: "What about Richard Reid, the shoe bomber? We got him. We prosecuted him as a civilian, and we have him serving a life sentence. Nobody was complaining about that."
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Bristol Palin embroiled in custody scandal
Fox News analysts Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lis Wiehl joined Bolling to run down the big legal stories of the day. One of the stories they covered was the Palin family -- they're involved in a nasty custody fight with Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin's child. It turns out Bristol had asked a judge to seal court records, but Levi Johnston had insisted that they be made public. The judge sided with Johnston. Wiehl didn't like that: "In the best interests of the child, a judge can seal any kind of custody hearing like this. It's going to be an absolute media circus when you have Sarah Palin's grandchild at stake here. Absolutely the judge did the wrong thing." Bolling, however, saw some logic in Levi's request: "But isn't he claiming that if it's kept under wraps that ex-Governor Palin would get involved and maybe use her influence?" Guilfoyle was confident that public or private, everything would work out in the end: "The judge is going to make the right call, and Levi's going to need to get a job and pay some money and visit his child. How about that?"
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Tiger Woods' impact on stock prices
Two researchers from UC Davis looked at the stock performance of Tiger Woods' sponsors over the weeks following his scandal revelations and determined that he may have cost shareholders up to $12 billion in value. Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone looked at the study, and thought it was a little fishy: "These Davis researchers didn't do enough background. You can't really quantify how much money one company is going to make from Tiger Woods." Bolling wondered if any more sponsors would bolt: "You're CEO of Nike. Are you going to stay with him?" Casone saw most of his sponsors sticking with him, and also saw a simple road back to grace: "All he has to do is go on 'Oprah' and he cry a little bit. All is forgiven."
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Liberals begin calls for security profiling
In the wake of the attempted Christmas terror attack, even some liberals are now saying that we should profile airline passengers based on their behavior. But some members of the American Muslim community think that any kind of profiling would only stoke insecurity and fear. The Council on American Islamic Relations, the leading US Muslim advocacy group, sent their spokesman Ibrahim Hooper to lay out their concerns. Hooper explained that his group was actually okay with "behavioral" profiling: "If you do something that's suspicious, you should be singled out. If you buy a one-way ticket, if you pay in cash, if you don't have luggage and you're staying for two weeks... these are real things that you can assess and you can act upon. But singling somebody out merely because of their race or religion is wrong and ineffective." Bolling insisted that extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures: "I understand you, but I've got to say, with all due respect, erring on the side of safety seems the wiser choice, especially right now with what's going on."
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